


Together

by TigerKat



Series: Root and Vine [1]
Category: Person of Interest (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe, F/F, Gen, Spoilers, girls gotta stick together, hanna lived, obsessive relationships
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-09-12
Updated: 2013-09-12
Packaged: 2017-12-26 08:52:58
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Rape/Non-Con, Underage
Chapters: 1
Words: 502
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/964001
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TigerKat/pseuds/TigerKat
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Sam and Hanna, Root and Vine. SPOILERS for 2x02, Bad Code.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Together

**Author's Note:**

> This takes place in an alternate universe where Hanna Frey did escape from her kidnapper and survive. All warnings take place in the background; nothing is graphic. 
> 
> HELP THIS AU IS EATING MY LIFE.

She's not Hanna anymore, no more than Root is Sam. They've left those girls behind, in a happier, more innocent time. Before that night outside the library. Before Hanna died in the house of a man she trusted; before Sam tried to save her friend and instead was torn apart. 

Sam and Hanna, Root and Vine. That's not what anyone calls them, of course. They have their aliases, their stories. Always they are together—friends, sisters, lovers, once memorably mother and daughter. They stay together, because they know what the night will do to them if they do not.

They have been abandoned. They will not abandon each other. 

\--

Root wants this man, this Finch—she wants his machine, she wants him, she wants all of it. Vine doesn't particularly care. It will be perfect, Root says, he will show her how to protect them and everyone, every little girl who has been abandoned. Vine doesn't think this is possible. They argue, not for the first time.

But everywhere they go, they go together. Sam and Hanna, Root and Vine. 

Harold Finch never even knows that Vine is there.

\--

This is, of course, largely because she is not physically there. She follows Finch's guard dog, the only one who could endanger Root—follows him even back to Texas, even when the sick nauseous feeling roils up in her belly at all the old places. 

The library. The house. The car. 

The patio, where her blood is spilled, where another girl is buried. 

Sam and Hanna died there. Root and Vine were born.

He's smarter than they thought; he catches on to Root. Vine reaches her in time to get them both away, but they have to leave Finch behind, bruised, maybe bleeding, maybe dead. 

Collateral damage. Can't be helped.

\--

Root cries on her shoulder afterwards.

She used to do that, back when they were still Sam and Hanna. When the other children tormented her, when she reached out and was slapped away, Sam went to Hanna, and was always welcomed.

After Hanna died and Sam fell apart, it was Vine who went to Root, who stayed close to her because they could not bear to be apart. Sam and Hanna, Root and Vine. 

Root cries now for the loss of Harold Finch, and Vine would be offended but for this: it's not really Finch that Root mourns but the possibilities he represents to her, the things that she can do with him. If anyone else could do it she'd be just as happy with them.

If Vine was gone, there would be no replacing her. 

\--

They stay together.

They don't define themselves. They are Root and Vine, Vine and Root. They go together. They stay together. Sometimes they sleep together; sometimes they huddle close, for the warmth of another body in the dark, cruel night. Sometimes they work apart, sometimes they live apart, but always, always, they stay together.

Sam and Hanna.

Root and Vine.

No one will ever hurt them again.


End file.
